BONNAR for STAFFORD | Peter Khill: Property Rights or Vigilantism?

A Glanbrook man will plead self-defence to a second-degree murder charge after he allegedly shot a man trying to steal a truck from his driveway.

Twenty-six-year-old Peter Khill is charged with the death of 29-nine-year-old Jonathan Styres, who was alleged to have attempted the robbery. More than 11,500 people have signed a petition to have the charges against Peter Khill dropped. Meanwhile, there is another petition that 800 people have signed in favour of Styres, stating that “stealing is not right but death over theft is not right either.”

If you were to sign one of these petitions, which one would it be?

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Comments

Glanbrook is a rural suburb that was forcibly amalgamated into Hamilton. This caused many problems not always visible to the rest of the province. Mostly because of union pressure, Glanbrook lost its own policing and station, also its volunteer fire department. Services are dispatched from Hamilton. It takes a while for city boys to find addresses out in the country! Standard joke with fires is that the fire truck brings the marshmellows, since the structure will be down to nice hot embers by the time they get there. Thieves immediately cottoned on to the fact that they could do even more than just quick smash and grabs and be long gone by the time police arrived.
In the Khill case, it’s not just about him defending his property. The real world fact is that NO ONE is defending his property! Or Mr. Khill, for that matter! Farmers in Glanbrook now lock their gates and doors, which they never had to do before. More than one keeps a firearm ready. Where they used to keep one farm dog they now have two or more.
Few become vigilantes for the sheer glee of it! Folks turn to vigilantism when they lose confidence in the “system” to protect them. Also, you should keep in mind the example of the Caledonia native protests not that long ago, where an entire town was abandoned by the rule of law in favour of political expediency! No doubt you are familiar with Christie Blatchford and her book “Helpless” about what happened there. Caledonia is more than close enough for Glanbrook residents to be intimately familiar with the problems in how Law is administered in Ontario.